What’s in a new name?

Pundits and bloggers everywhere are scratching their heads in regard to the name of the new iPad: iPad. Here’s why they’re wrong, as usual.

Pundits and bloggers everywhere are scratching their heads in regard to the name of the new iPad: iPad.

Seems like everyone was thrown off kilter because it wasn’t named iPad 3, or iPad HD, or iPad 2S… and they hate that, when their predictions don’t come true. So they translate that into dire warnings that Apple will soon succumb to forces of entropy and that the company is unraveling.

I think today’s Apple event shows that perfectionism fraying a bit around the edges. The bad pun, the goofy logo, the weird product name — all of it pointed to a leadership that either didn’t understand or didn’t care about consistency in iconography. — Jolie O’Dell, VentureBeat

This is a bizarro-world view. Of late, Apple hasn’t been consistent. They’re returning to consistency in iconography.

Here’s how I see it: the numbering of the iPhone and the iPad has thus far been a weird abberation. It serves to fragment the product line and moves Apple closer to companies that name and number every damned thing until you have no clue what you’re buying.

There is no iMac 2. There is no Mac Pro 4S. There was never an AppleTV 3GS or a Mac mini 5.

There is only MacBook and MacBook Pro. iMac and Mac Pro. And there should only be iPad and iPhone. Seems like they shook off that strange tangent they were on, and have hewed back to the line of simplicity they’ve always traveled.

I don’t know anyone who refers to their MacBook Pro as “My MacBook Pro 15″ Unibody Late 2010.” You just have a MacBook Pro. And now you’ll just have an iPad.

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